Running
by Bones365
Summary: Lilly uncovers an interesting power in herself, one that binds her forever with Scorpius Malfoy. But as that power and that bond put them into more and more danger, the question isn't whether or not their relationship will survive, it's whether they will.
1. Chapter 1

Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. In…2…3…4… Out…2…3…4…

Lilly Potter let her inhales and exhales form a rhythm to guide her feet on the uneven path. Even without her brothers, she kept a fast pace and didn't look down. She didn't need or want to.

Lilly's childhood had been spent on this path, she knew every tree and rock there was. Part of her father's need for privacy had put them here, in England's forest, isolated, but not lost forever. Lilly reached up and tapped a low hanging branch, a habit since years ago.

She could still remember how James and Albus had jeered at her because they could touch the branch and she couldn't. Her mother had found her the next day stretching her hands up toward the sky, trying to grow faster.

Lilly's whole life had been spent trying to grow faster. If only…_What?_ Lilly thought, if only she hadn't had mean big brothers? If only her father weren't so protective? If only she lived up to her family's expectations.

_Yeah,_ that was it. James and Albus had shown their parents' knack for magic at an early age, they had lightning fast reflexes like their father, but fierce power like their mother. Lilly growled in her throat and urged her feet to move faster, to leave the bad thoughts behind.

Today was the day that she would see if she were like them. Today was her first day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Lilly's breathing became just the slightest bit labored, but she knew she had at least a good mile left in her before she would start panting. Her trip to Diagon Alley for school supplies had been trying to say the least. All had been going well until Olivander's. Of course the old man had disappeared during the war, but Olivander's son had stepped in to take his father's place.

Olivander Jr. was just as good, if not better, at wand making and selling than his father. Lilly had stepped in full of excitement. Her own wand! She had been waiting for years for this moment. Olivander had looked at her oddly, and then gone off to the shelves of boxes muttering about pointlessness.

Lilly had tried close to fifty wands before landing on one that didn't make things explode. It wasn't perfect, it hadn't chosen her, and she hated it. Her brothers both had perfect wands that did all their bidding. Why couldn't she be as lucky? Olivander himself had seen her ineptitude for magic. It was pointless, maybe she was a squib?

"Lilly! Hey squirt, you're running fast!" Lilly slowed to a jog to let James catch up to her. Her oldest brother was thirteen and had just hit a growth spurt, sprouting from nowhere a few inches and gangly arms.

"What are you doing up so early?" he asked, "Nervous?" a teasing tone hit his voice and she bit back a sigh.

"No, I'm fine. I always run in the mornings, but I had to do it extra early because we're leaving early. What are you doing up? Shouldn't you be asleep, dreaming of Joanna Finnigan?" She shot right back at him making him turn red and pick up his pace.

"Mum wanted me to tell you that breakfast is ready. C'mon." He veered suddenly onto a small splinter path of the main one, heading back towards their house. As they approached it, Lilly took in its beautiful brick structure and Victorian flair. Lilly loved the house, and now she was wondering if it was going to be a year before she saw it again. She shook her head to clear it and walked into the kitchen.

*

"Lilly, dear, could you go up and get your trunk, we have to leave soon." Ginny Potter tried not to cry as she watched her only daughter roll her eyes and run up to her room. Lilly was the youngest and the only girl, just like Ginny herself. But she had been nothing like her stubborn, sometimes messy, beautiful daughter.

"Why couldn't I have been like her growing up?" Ginny turned to her husband who was reading the Prophet at the table. "She's so much stronger than me, so much smarter." Harry looked up at her, smiling.

"Why couldn't _I_ have been like her growing up?" Harry stood, wrapping his arms around Ginny's waist. "We are so much better than the Dursleys." She smiled and leaned in for a kiss.

"Ewwww!"

"Aw, c'mon mum!"

"That's just gross."

The pair broke apart to look at their children, standing in the doorway and ready to go. Harry gave Ginny a rueful look. There were some things that made boarding school worth the strain of missing your kids.

All of them loaded up in the car and Harry slid behind the wheel, glancing at his daughter in the rear view mirror. She was quiet, almost stoic, trying to look brave, but shaking. Lilly was one of a kind. She was observant, smart, quick-witted, charming, spunky, tough, but she was puzzling.

Out of all of his children, she was the one he worried about the most. This no wand thing had him shaking along with her. What if she was a squib? Of course he would love her anyway, but how could she be able to deal with it? Only time would tell. Pulling into King's Cross, his mind flashed back to the first time he had ever seen her, held her.

He had been sure that nothing in the world could be as pretty. She had been so different from her brothers. She was smaller, lighter, softer. She had been all girl from the beginning. Now here she was, starting at Hogwarts. Nothing could have prepared him.

They crossed through the barrier and he spotted Ron and Hermione almost immediately. He also saw Malfoy with Scorpius, walking to a compartment. Too soon he had to hug his children good-by. Lilly leaned into him and lingered more than Albus and James. Harry squeezed her extra hard and tried to give her some strength. She pulled away to join Hugo in a compartment.

Ginny stood by his side and they watched as all three of their children left for the first time. "So I guess this means we can have a snog in the kitchen now." said Ginny as soon as the train was out of sight. Harry laughed and led her back to the car. "Yeah, as many times as you want. Just say the word."

*

"Is this the last of the Potters? Well, finally! I know just where to put you…Gryffindor!"

Lilly sagged with relief and went to join her cheering brothers and cousins at the table. A chill ran up her spine and had her looking to her right. Her gaze collided with cold, steel grey eyes. Her breath sucked into her body and her heart stopped. Scorpius Malfoy. In the instant their eyes met, something flashed through his and she froze in her tracks. Some sort of emotion, or heat, she didn't have a chance to identify it, it was gone as soon as it had come.

Lilly hurried to a seat next to Hugo and kept her head down for the rest of the ceremony.

*

Scorpius looked thoughtfully into his shepherd's pie. Lilly Potter was quite a surprise. Her eyes were deep blue, so unlike any of her immediate family. Their eyes had met and he had felt a flood of sensation in his body. His limbs tingled and his heart was racing.

He shook his head hard. Breathe. Yes, that was it. He must have imagined his reaction to the girl. She was so pretty, it was only natural to admire her, but she was just a _girl_. Just a silly little first year girl. He smiled and raised his head looking to one of his friends, Benedict.

"I don't think we were ever that small." He said, and he and Benedict got into a rousing discussion of Quidditch.


	2. Chapter 2

"Miss Potter! Let's have a demonstration." Professor Laurel, the charms teacher turned to Lilly. This was the day she had been dreading. Lilly knew that the spell she was going to cast wouldn't work. Her wand didn't work.

Lilly took a deep breath and pointed her wand at the feather. "Wingardium Leviosa." Lilly flicked her wand perfectly, her pronunciation was spot on, but her feather didn't levitate. It didn't even wiggle. It did, however, burst into flames.

Professor Laurel raised and eyebrow, but moved on to the next student. Henry Finnigan leaned over to her. "Don't worry. Stuff always explodes when I try to charm it. I get it from my dad."

Lilly smiled gratefully, but was even more grateful to hear the bell signaling the end of class. She gathered her books and bag and swept out of the door with the rest of the Gryffindors and Slytherins. Unfortunately, Pearl Parkinson caught sight of her.

"Geez, Potter. Can't even get a simple levitation charm right. I guess what they say is true. You must be a SQUIB!" Lilly stopped in her tracks, but Hugo and Henry pushed her on. Pearl wasn't so easily dissuaded.

"If you're lucky, they can put you down in that fowl cabin with that half-bred oaf! I'm sure it will be cozy for you!"

Lilly whirled around, dropping her things. Acting instinctively, she raised her hands. Instead of curling into fists and driving into Pearl's pinched face, her finger extended and Lilly pointed it at Pearl, saying the first thing that came to mind.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Students around her gasped and backed away from her as Pearl was levitated into the air. Her head hit the ceiling with a thud and she was knocked unconscious. Lilly was so surprised that she lost her concentration and Pearl began to plummet to the floor.

"Arrestim momentum." A voice behind Lilly spoke softly and Pearl landed softly on the floor. Lilly whirled around to look into the headmistress's puzzled face.

"Miss Potter, I'll need to see you in my office."

*

"Professor, please! I didn't mean to do it! I didn't even have a wand in my hand, it could have been someone else, but you didn't see them because Pearl was hanging in the air. Oh my God! I knocked her unconscious! Do you think she's okay? Oh my, I have to see her! Please, let me go to Madame Pomfrey's and-"

"Enough Miss Potter!" Professor McGonagall walked around her desk and sat in the ornate chair. Headmasters from years past, including her brother's namesake looked down on her with mixed expressions. Lilly could hear snippets of their conversations.

"…_knocked Parkinson unconscious…"_

"_Poor girl can't even levitate!"_

"_Oh dear, can't live up to her father…"_

It made Lilly cringe in dread, disgust, humiliation.

"Potter, I've been noticing something." Lilly took a deep breath. McGonagall knew she was a squib. This was it. She was going to have to go back home and face her parents. Her brothers would never let her live this down. She was going to have to give up her Quidditch and Auror dreams. But not now. Now she had to get through this.

"Noticing what Professor?" Lilly asked demurely in what she hoped was a 'please-don't-send-me-home' kind of voice.

"Your professors, they talk to me, regular reports about each of the students, and it seems that you've been having trouble here at Hogwarts." McGonagall paused and looked at Lilly.

"Yes, Professor. But I can work harder! I can do whatever it takes-"

"I don't think there is anything that you can do, Miss Potter. Ah, Mr. Malfoy. Just the man I wanted to see."

Lilly turned and her eyes met Scorpius' again. Her stomach plummeted and her ears prickled. She imagined that she looked like Uncle Ron when he had had too much butterbeer. She nodded at Scorpius, and turned back around.

"Scorpius is also a Sosaire. I'm teaching him right now because, unfortunately, we didn't catch his gift until the end of last year, but in a few months he'll join his classmates again for regular lessons. So it is really no problem for me to instruct both of you at the same time."

Lilly blinked. "_Sosaire?_ What is that? Why is he one? Are you? Am I?" To Lilly's surprise, both McGonagall and Scorpius looked at her in puzzlement and alarm.

"You mean no one's ever…You haven't even…What have you been thinking all these years when you couldn't perform traditional magic? That you were a squib?" McGonagall's eyebrows rose as she realized the truth.

"Well I thought surely your aunt at least…well, you are _not_ a squib. A sosaire is a highly powerful, talented wizard who, for some reason or another does not need a wand, along with other wizarding items to perform magic. They are very rare. Mr. Malfoy and yourself are the only two I've ever heard of for at least three centuries. It is very odd indeed that the two of you should be alive at the same time. Usually there can only be one sosaire at a time, but perhaps…"

McGonagall trailed off, looking at the portrait of Albus Dumbledore. The portrait winked, seemingly breaking her trance.

"Yes. Well. Lessons are from eight to four, like the rest of the classes with restroom and lunch breaks. Your parents will be informed of the switch in your training, and I will see you both here tomorrow." Lilly knew a dismissal when she heard one. She and Scorpius turned and left the office. As soon as they were out and the door was closed, Lilly stopped to digest the information.

She wasn't a squib! But she'd never heard of a Sosaire, and what's this about Scorpius being one too? And what did McGonagall mean when she had said "But perhaps…"?

"I know." Scorpius brought her out of her reverie. He was standing in front of her with his hands in his pockets. "When I found out I almost fainted. It's weird the things I, we, can do. Fly without brooms, cast spells without wands, it's incredible. I'm glad there's someone else, though. Looks like it's just you and me, girl." He was smiling. Lilly couldn't help but smile back.

Taking a breath, she willed her feet to move, and Scorpius moved with her. Their feet were in sync, and their bodies swayed in the same direction. Lilly purposefully broke her walking pattern; some things were just too creepy.

"Can we really fly without brooms?" She asked suddenly.

"Yeah. I haven't yet, but I want to try. It's cool not needing a wand to do magic. Definitely impresses people." They were now almost to the door leading out into the hallway. An unspoken agreement passed between them. No one could see them together. Not with their family history. The doors opened, and they both went separate ways. Later, Lilly wondered how they had known which way to go, but she chalked it up to coincidence that they had both chosen different paths.


	3. Chapter 3

Lilly dressed slowly the next morning, not sure what she should be feeling. Tugging on her sweater-vest, she sorted through her mixed feelings.

On the one hand, she was nervous. She wasn't a squib, but what if McGonagall was wrong about the whole "sosaire" thing? She didn't think she could face another failure. And because Scorpius was another one, and they were so rare, was is weird that they were both in the same school together, let alone the same planet?

Thinking of Scorpius, a small stirring in her stomach started. _Excitement_, her mutinous brain informed her, even as she tried to ignore it, _you want to see him again…_ Lilly quickly squashed it back down and slung her bag over her shoulder, joining her Hugo and James as they walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast, but she couldn't keep her happiness at bay when she walked into McGonagall's office and saw him.

"Hi." She said, standing in the doorway. He spun around, caught off guard. He cleared his throat.

"Hey. Ready for your first lesson?" Immediately Lilly's insecurity kicked in and her worries resurfaced. Almost reading her thoughts, Scorpius took a step closer to her. "It's not that bad, it takes a bit of getting used to, but I caught on really quickly. Watch your aim, anything you channel the magic with can… well, just watch your aim. McGonagall is a really good teacher, but just watch out when she gets frustrated-"

Lilly never learned what happened when McGonagall got frustrated, because McGonagall herself chose that moment to walk through the door. "take your seats, if you please, and we'll begin. Since I'll have to start over for Miss Potter, perhaps you can take this time to listen and review what you've already learned, Mr. Malfoy, and practice some of those sticking charms while you're at it."

Scorpius scooted down in his chair, settling in to watch Lilly's first lesson, and glanced over at her. She could have sworn she saw him wink at her, and it gave her the courage to sit up and begin to learn.

"Miss Potter, if you could please levitate this book? I believe the charm is one you are familiar with." Lilly thought guiltily of Pearl, still complaining of a headache in the infirmary. Focusing on the book the professor indicated, she raised her hand and said the charm.

"Wingardium Leviosa."

Nothing happened. Scorpius' eyes met hers for a brief moment. _Try again…_ it was a ghost of a thought, not even substantial in her own head and she wondered whether he had thought it or her. Shaking her head she looked again at the offending tome. She took a breath and stretched out her hand again…

"Wingardium Leviosa." And the book lifted up. For the rest of her life, Lilly would never be able to forget the feeling of that moment. She would always remember McGonagall's approving nod, Scorpius' encouraging smile, her own awe, and the power…

Oh, the _power!_ It flooded straight from the middle of her body to the tip of her outstretched finger, making her arms tingle, the hair raise on the back of her neck. This must be what others felt when they cast a spell, Lilly felt for an instant the deep pool of her own magic beneath her diaphragm, knew it would never dry up, and knew her own strength. It flooded her body and almost lifted her in the air with its intensity.

In the next second it was gone, the book was back on the table, and McGonagall had picked it up and plopped onto Lilly's own desk, telling her to open to page six. Lilly caught Scorpius' eye again, and though no ghostly words passed between them, they shared the small triumph together, him winking again and her flushing with pleasure.

But the lesson moved on, and they turned to the front and their professor.

"Once you learn the basic principals of wandless magic, you can use them in regular classes, until then, you may get comfortable in those seats. Unleashing a sosaire, let alone two into a school could be disastrous..."

Later, when they were dismissed, Lilly and Scorpius walked again through the empty halls.

"You picked it up really fast, it took me at least an hour. You did good, girl." Lilly beamed.

"It felt so…amazing! The magic, and then actually using it?! I had no idea that I could even…"

"I know! The best is when you get into the more advanced stuff, you can control everything. Its incredible-" But he was again cut off as the bell sounded and the two scurried apart, remembering their unspoken agreement.

A/N: Ok, so I started this story a long, long time ago, and I would love some feedback. Is it too out there? I know where I want to go with it, but some reviews would be nice. Help! I need guidance…!


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